Low Birth Rate in Italy

[Fitz]

Many European countries offer financial incentives to increase their population now. The trend is for very small families. Are you surprised that Italy, home of the Vatican and the Catholic church is in this position? The Pope has always warned the US about it’s reliance on abortion, but what does he tell the Italians? Does anyone know it he cautions them about their ways? Just curious about it.

EXCERPT:

Italy offers families baby-cash
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif By Frances Kennedy
BBC, Rome
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/999999.gif

**In Italy, a country once known for its large families, the government is now offering a financial bonus to encourage people to have more children. **

The 1,000 euro payment will go to those who already have at least one child and have a second by the end of 2004. But demographic experts say such short-term measures will do little to redress the population imbalance. They argue that the real reasons lie in the difficulties of combining work and motherhood and costly child care.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3252794.stm

 

[Faithful_2_Rome]

On the surface, its IS shocking…its the home of the Vatican…

But… and I do NOT have the answer for this…but could it be that the young people are moving out of the country and having families elsewhere? All that I have read about Italy…admittantly not much…but what I have read is that: It is VERY HOT in Italy…air conditioning is a rarity…most towns have no proper electrical hookups… telephones let alone cell phones are hard to come by…is there SOME truth to this…are the amenities scarce? If so…I wouldnt wanna live there myself… and if the amenities are not scarce…does one have to have a lot of money to live in parts of Italy that are “modern”?

 

[Jadesfire20]

I believe part of the problem is that Italy is an expensive place to raise a family. The taxes are pretty high and the economy is dismal so many people go abroad to work and they don’t return.

 

[Fitz]

Jadesfire20:

I believe part of the problem is that Italy is an expensive place to raise a family. The taxes are pretty high and the economy is dismal so many people go abroad to work and they don’t return.

I am not sure of the people going abroad to work, but there are economy issues. This suggests that the children don’t leave home at all:

Italians ‘slow to leave the nest’

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40784000/jpg/_40784383_houses_index.jpg Home sweet home - but many are loathe to leave

An ever-increasing number of Italians are living with their parents until well into their 30s, a study says.

The proportion of Italians aged between 30 and 34 still living at home has doubled to well over a quarter, a recent government report concludes.

Sons linger even longer than daughters, the government says, with 36.5% of men aged 30 to 34 remaining at home, compared to just 18.1% of women.

The new figures are part of an annual report by research centre Eurispes.

The numbers seem to feed the idea of Italian sons so dependent on their mothers that they just cannot bear to leave the maternal home, men who have become known as “mammoni” in Italy.

Between 1990 and 2000 the rate of those aged between 30 and 34 still sharing the parental home rose from 14% to 27%, Eurispes says in its annual report.

“That’s the trend, there’s no doubt that it would be the same for the last few years as well,” Adele Menniti told the Associated Press news agency.

A high level of unemployment for graduates and soaring costs of living since the introduction of the euro are partly behind the trend, the report suggests.

“In Italy, one only leaves home when one gets married,” Ms Menniti added. But even the number of marriages has fallen - with 257,880 couple tying the knot in 2003, less than half of the number in 1971. Younger siblings are also staying at home - with 90% of those aged between 20 and 24 years of age living at home by 2000, 10% more than in 1990.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

The sad truth is simply that “Catholic” Europe is a facade. Even the small percentage of the population that is practicing is not at all reliable in their orthodoxy. The continent has been converted mostly to cultural Catholicism, if that. It remains to be seen whether the faithful will be able to mount a reawakening or whether Europe will just continue being a post-Christian society.

 

[Steven_Merten]

I would find it hard to beilieve that the Italian Government would be offering “baby cash” if Italians were already having big families and the problem was only with people leaving the country. Would’nt they be offering “please stay” cash if people leaving the country was the problem? We have to be careful not to use our subcontious Catholic knee jerk reaction which modifies the truth when the truth does not look so appealling to us.

I have heard of the negative population growth in Italy before. Does anyone know the average number of children per family in Italy.

I have a friend from Poland. He says that the Poles are having far less children in Poland with the growth of affluence there. He says the Poles are having less children for the same reason Americans have less children and that is, wealth.

It is always ironical to find out that it is wealth which causes families to have less children and not poverty. One would think it would be the other way around.

Peace in Christ,
Steven Merten
www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com

 

[Jadesfire20]

Fitz:

I am not sure of the people going abroad to work, but there are economy issues. This suggests that the children don’t leave home at all:

Italians ‘slow to leave the nest’

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40784000/jpg/_40784383_houses_index.jpg Home sweet home - but many are loathe to leave

An ever-increasing number of Italians are living with their parents until well into their 30s, a study says.

The proportion of Italians aged between 30 and 34 still living at home has doubled to well over a quarter, a recent government report concludes.

Sons linger even longer than daughters, the government says, with 36.5% of men aged 30 to 34 remaining at home, compared to just 18.1% of women.

The new figures are part of an annual report by research centre Eurispes.

The numbers seem to feed the idea of Italian sons so dependent on their mothers that they just cannot bear to leave the maternal home, men who have become known as “mammoni” in Italy.

Between 1990 and 2000 the rate of those aged between 30 and 34 still sharing the parental home rose from 14% to 27%, Eurispes says in its annual report.

“That’s the trend, there’s no doubt that it would be the same for the last few years as well,” Adele Menniti told the Associated Press news agency.

A high level of unemployment for graduates and soaring costs of living since the introduction of the euro are partly behind the trend, the report suggests.

“In Italy, one only leaves home when one gets married,” Ms Menniti added. But even the number of marriages has fallen - with 257,880 couple tying the knot in 2003, less than half of the number in 1971. Younger siblings are also staying at home - with 90% of those aged between 20 and 24 years of age living at home by 2000, 10% more than in 1990.

That may be the case among single people. It also may be a city/rural difference. I have cousins in Italy whose husbands spend months in Britain working to make money for the family…they live in the more rural south of Italy.

 

[maendem]

Faithful 2 Rome:

All that I have read about Italy…admittantly not much…but what I have read is that: It is VERY HOT in Italy…air conditioning is a rarity…most towns have no proper electrical hookups… telephones let alone cell phones are hard to come by…is there SOME truth to this…are the amenities scarce?

Uhhhh… Have you been to Italy? It’s a 1st-world, thoroughly “modern” country.

What you describe might be possible in a few mountain villages today (think “Il Postino”), but hasn’t been true as a rule since the '50s!

Actually, it is an almost universal maxim that as countries develop, their population rates decrease, such that post-industrial societies will often have extremely low or “negative” growth.

The Italy of yesteryear that you describe certainly had a much greater birth rate than Italy in 2005. Economic factors such as the high cost of living, increased access to education for women, and a growing cultural secularization have changed things considerably.